WHICH MONSTER CAME FIRST?

I came upon a book a long time ago at the Strand in a pile of used books. IT was called THE MAN WITH THE CAN - the art of Jan Sanders. He was born in 1919 in the Netherlands.

When I flipped through the book I immediately got stuck on this image. I knew this picture!


(the date on it says 1972)

It was extremely similar to ONE MONSTER AFTER ANOTHER (1974):


It seems to me that Mercer Mayer had seen Sanders's cartoon and either consciously or unconsciously decided to make an image similar. Was it a joke? An insider joke? Was Sanders's work really popular at the time - a joke that many adults would recognize? Or did he see the image somewhere and file it away and then think it was his own? Either way I love both images!

ART CREATIONS

I was working on some sketches for one of my new book ideas and I was at work while I was doing this. My character - ME - fell into a small child while on roller skates and and flew into the air. I was trying to figure out what kind of expression I, as a teen, might have. Mind you my cartoons have little lines for mouthes and so you'd think it wouldn't be that difficult a task but sometimes it is - especially when I just have one line to play with! I realized while doing this that i must make the facial expressions to create them on paper. I was contorting my face into all sorts of lovely forms while standing at the register. I wonder if anyone noticed?

Do other artists do this too?

CRUMB HISTORY OF AMERICA JONI MITCHELL VERSION

This one's in color. I love different variations...

CRUMB'S HISTORY OF AMERICA

The United States from its early days to cars and buses by R. Crumb: